Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Friday, April 29, 2016

Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in
the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

What
is the spiritual application to be made from this passage?

John Owen
said it teaches that if God calls someone to some task he will also provide the
means for the accomplishment of that task.
The Father decreed that the Son would redeem sinful humanity by a better
sacrifice. To that end, he prepared him
a body. Owen: “Whatever God designs, appoints, and calls
any unto, he will provide for them all that is needful unto the special duties
of obedience whereunto they are so appointed and called (Hebrews, Vol. 6, p. 461).”

But
that just does not seem enough.

We
could say the point is to stress the necessity of the incarnation. He had to be a man to identify with us (Heb
4:15).

In the
end, however, I think the greatest spiritual benefit of this passage is that it
evokes awe and worship at the knowledge revealed of the eternal counsels of
God. We get to overhear a conversation in
the Godhead from eternity past.

The spiritual
benefit is to contemplate: If we are
saved it is only because we were made the beneficiaries of the gracious plan of
God. It was a plan conceived in mercy in the mysterious counsels of God in
which the Father decreed that the Son would enter into the world as a real
flesh and blood man. John Owen reminds
us of the fully Trinitarian comprehension of the description: “The Father prepared it in the authoritative disposition of all things; the
Holy Ghost actually wrought it; and
he himself [the Son] assumed it.” (Hebrews, Vol. 6, p. 464).

Indeed,
he would take on a body which was prepared for him. And the Son declared to the Father, Let it be
written in the divine record book. “Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God.”

And he
really came and he really perfected God’s plan.
And he really laid down his life.
And he really bled and died. And
three days later, he really raised it up again.
And he really ascended to the right hand of the Father. And he is really
coming again to judge the living and the dead.
And his sacrifice really did away with the old covenant sacrificial
system. And he has really cleansed our
conscience of sin. And this really is
the only way a man might be made perfect or definitively sanctified by God.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Reaching the end of the semester in a survey of the NT class
means getting to give a lecture on the book of Revelation, which almost always
draws the interest of the students. The book’s
apocalyptic style (revelatory visions in a narrative framework) is mystifying
enough to many to draw the conclusion that it is indecipherable.The more I do this lecture, however, the more
convinced I am that the narrative structure is simpler and more straightforward
than typically assumed.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Someone recently gave me an anonymous gift subscription to Bible League Quarterly, the magazine of
the Bible League Trust, and I got the first two issues of 2016 in the mail from
the UK this week. I had subscribed a few
years ago but had let it lapse. The BLQ is a gem, and I am thankful to my
benefactor for the opportunity to read it again.

The opening article in the January-March 2016 issue from editor
John Thackway is a reflection on 1 Samuel 27:1 titled “David’s Fainting Fit.” The title reminded me of the
recent post here from Bunyan. Thackway
makes skilful application of David’s spiritual state to that of his readers:

Gospel ministers can suffer this “fainting
fit,” and sink into deep dejection. Some
can hardly continue, and some even leave the pastorate. Many Christians have sunk terribly low or
turned aside from the right way. It may
be, dear reader, that you find yourself on the brink of this. Or maybe you have already come to where David
was and are now ensnared in the consequences.

David’s “fainting fit” is on record
here for our admonition and comfort. Let
us follow the account of what happened and seek to apply it to ourselves (p.
324).

I was also struck by this vivid illustration on how the Lord
sovereignly uses our circumstances, even troubled ones, to grow us in
godliness:

The story is told of a little girl
walking in a garden who noticed a particularly beautiful flower. She admired its fragrance. “It is so pretty!” she exclaimed. Then her eyes followed the stem down to the
soil in which it grew. “This flower is
too pretty to be planted in such dirt!” she cried. So she pulled it up by its roots and ran to
the tap to wash away the soil. It wasn’t
long until the flower wilted and died. When
the gardener saw what the little girl had done, he exclaimed, “You have
destroyed my finest plant!” “I’m sorry,”
she said, “but I didn’t like it in that dirt.”
The gardener replied, “I chose that spot and mixed the soil because I
knew that only there could it grow to be a beautiful flower.” And so it is in our God-appointed
circumstances that, by God’s grace, we produce the beauty of Christian
character and the fragrance of Christ (pp. 322-323).

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27)

We are
left in the end to ponder this verse. It
is appointed unto men once to die. Some
obsess over and distort the Lord’s appointment of the time of our deaths. Have you heard someone say things like,
“Well, I guess his number was up”? God
is sovereign over all and he knows the time of our death, but that misses the
point here. He knows the end from the beginning.

We
have a simple and solemn reminder that we will die. It is a universal reality for all men and has
been since the fall.

My family
took a trip to New York City last week and we visited the Metropolitan Museum of
Art where I had the opportunity to walk through part of the Greek and Roman exhibition. Some of the pieces I saw were ancient funerary
art. One that stood out was a marble
grave marker for a young boy placed there by his father in the 1-2 century A. D. It reads:

To the spirits of the dead.
For C. Porcius Dionysius, who lived 8 years, 10 months, and 13 days. C. Porcius
Dionysius [the father for whom the son was named] made this for the sweetest of
sons.

As we
drove home we also stopped off in Philadelphia and visited Christ Church and
its burial ground where Benjamin Franklin was laid to rest in 1790 after 84
years of earthly life having gained great fame among men. Washington said of him that he was “venerated
for benevolence, admired for talents, esteemed for patriotism, beloved for philanthropy.”

All men
die. From little boys to old men. From obscure men to famous men.

It is
appointed unto men once to die. Paul
said:

1 Timothy 6:7 For we brought nothing into this world, and
it is certain we can carry nothing
out.

But
what happens afterward?

Scripture
says that after death there is a krisis,
a judgment.

What
are the standards for this judgment?
Jesus teaches us those standards:

Matthew 10:32 Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven.

So,
the question is: Have you confessed
Christ or have you denied Christ?

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The broken-hearted man is a fainting man; he has his qualms,
his sinking fits; he oft-times dies away with pain and fear; he must be stayed
with flagons, and comforted with apples, or else he cannot tell what to
do: he pines, he pines away in his
iniquity; nor can any thing keep him alive and make him well but the comforts
and cordials of Almighty God.Wherefore
with such an one God will dwell, to revive the heart, to revive the spirit.‘To revive the spirit of the humble, and to
revive the heart of the contrite ones' (p. 10).

Monday, April 18, 2016

The book produced from the 2014 conference at SEBTS on the Pericope Adulterae (see my
report here) is available for pre-order from Bloomsbury/ T & T
Clark.Unfortunately the price is high (Amazon
lists the kindle price at $67.19 and the hardback at $104.46)!The 2008
book edition of the SEBTS conference on the ending of Mark was printed by B
& H Academic in paperback at a much more reasonable price.I guess there’s always inter-library
loan.

Larry Hurtado, the only
contributor to the book who was not part of the SEBTS symposium, describes this
book as now being the “go-to” resource for text-critical study of the PA (see his
blog post on the book here).Hurtado, of course, sides with Knust/Wasserman/Keith in rejecting the originality
of the PA, but I find his “heretical” statements against text-critical orthodoxy
in this post to be interesting. He sees the PA as an inexplicable late addition. What about the possibility it was early [original, in fact, to John], went through a period of suppression from some corners, but tenaciously persisted and prevailed?

Friday, April 15, 2016

And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission
(Hebrews 9:22).

We are
left to ponder the scandal of a crucified Christ, who not only died on the
cross but whose blood was also poured out there for the remission of our sins.

This
has long been an offense.

In 1
Corinthians 1 Paul could speak about the preaching of the cross as foolishness
to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews.

It was
an offense to the early Gnostic heretic Marcion, who wanted a more
sophisticated, non-Jewish religion.
David L. Dungan notes that Marcion claimed Jesus “had not been
crucified. The mob of Jews mistakenly crucified someone else (possibly Simon of
Cyrene) and ignorant Christian writers got the truth completely garbled…..” (History of the Synoptic Problem, p. 48).

This
denial was taken up by Moahmmed in the Koran (Surah IV):

And for their saying, “Verily
we have slain the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, an apostle of God.” Yet they slew him not, and they crucified him
not, but they had only his likeness.

And it
has been denied in modern liberal theology which preaches the Fatherhood of God
and the brotherhood of man but is embarrassed by the cross. The liberal twentieth century minister Harry
Emerson Fosdick called the preaching of the cross a “slaughterhouse
religion.” The contemporary British
so-called “evangelical” Steven Chalke has called the preaching of the cross a
form of “cosmic child abuse.”

But
the Scriptures still stand bearing witness that without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. It is not an
accident of history that Christ was crucified and that his blood was shed. It is not an embarrassment. It was the perfecting of the new
covenant. It could not have happened any
other way. This was the signature work
as the Mediator of the New Testament.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

I have recently been reading David Laird Dungan’s A History of the Synoptic Problem
(Anchor Bible Reference Library, Doubleday, 1999).In chapter six of that work Dungan offers a summary
of the pagan philosopher Celsus’ critique of Christianity in True Doctrine, a work which is no longer extant
but can be partially reconstructed from quotations in the writings of Origen (c. 185-253).Dungan writes:

We will conclude with one final
insult: “Let no one educated, on one
wise, no one sensible draw near” to the abominable Christians. Their raving make sense “only to the foolish,
dishonorable and stupid (among men), (and to) slaves, women, and little
children” (p. 63).

In my NT class yesterday I was teaching on the book of
Philemon and we had a discussion on the early Christian attitudes toward and
responses to slavery in the Greco-Roman world.
Last week in a session on the Pastoral Epistles we had also discussed
the role of women in early Christianity.
I read my students this quotation from Celsus and pointed out that the Celsus’
disdain for Christianity reflected the very thing that attracted all kinds of people, including women and
slaves, to it—the belief that every person, no matter their external circumstances and status, bore the image of God, had value in his sight, might be
numbered among the elect, and enjoy spiritual liberty and equality in Christ.

Monday, April 11, 2016

An unseasonable cold streak made for the chilliest Opening Day ceremonies on Saturday (4.9.16) I can recall in the twelve years my family has been playing ball at Cove Creek. Despite the un-baseball-like weather, it's baseball season again. I am coaching the Major League Pirates (my son Isaiah's 11-12 year old team) again this year, as we attempt to defend our 2015 tournament championship. The Pirates had a bye on Saturday but get down to business with two games this week. Joseph is playing on the Cove Creek Minor League Rangers, who got off to a strong start with a 16-1 Saturday win over the Mets. My son Sam, meanwhile, was playing for his high school team on Saturday in a tournament at the Bing Crosby field in Front Royal, Virginia, where they lost their first game by a run and then won the next game by a run. Sam pitched a complete game in the win and was named to the all-tournament team. OK, I'm a proud Dad.

Friday, April 08, 2016

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by
his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us” (Hebrews
9:12).

Meditate
on that final statement in v. 12: “having
obtained eternal redemption for us.”

The
verb here for “to obtain” is from heurisko,
to discover or to find. It is the root
also for the term Eureka! I have discovered or found it.

The
Lord Jesus is a satisfied and a successful Savior. He has done all he needs to
do to save sinners. Nothing can
frustrate his accomplished work, not even the sin of men. For by his irresistible grace he will
overwhelm the resistance of those for whom he died.

He has
won for them “redemption [lytrosis].”
This is ransom language. It is also the language
of the slave marketplace. A prisoner
could be ransomed and set free. A slave
might be bought or redeemed on the auction block.

I read
recently a book on slavery in the ancient world and the writer stressed the
importance of having a good and kind master.
The first Christians used this kind of language to described coming to
Christ. It is about coming under the
lordship of a good and kind master.
You’ve known cruel and abusive masters, now come under the yoke of
Christ.

I’m
also struck by the adjective “eternal” here.
What does that mean? When was I
redeemed? In eternity past (cf. Eph
1:4: “as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world”). At the
moment Christ gave up himself for me at Calvary. At the moment I heard the effectual call, was
supernaturally regenerated, repented, and believed. At the moment I will be glorified in heaven.
He discovered eternal redemption for us.
A redemption, in some sense, without beginning and without end.

It is
as though the writer tells us, If you want to go anywhere spiritually speaking
you have to go to through the metropolis of Christ, for all roads lead to
him. And if you want to understand
Christ you have to understand the cross.
You have to make a bee-line for the cross.

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Yesterday, I recorded and posted Word Magazine 52 (listen
here).This is the fourth and final
episode in a series of reviews of RB apologist James White’s text presentation
on Apologia radio/tv (listen here).

I also refer to my online debate with apologist Jamin Hubner
and my response to his use of the “puzzle pieces” illustration for modern text
criticism (see
this post). JW uses the same
illustration and cites the source as Rob Bowman (as cited by Dan Wallace). I believe this illustration shows the problem
with the modern restorationist approach, rather than inspiring confidence in
it.

In this episode we do get to the heart of the matter. Is the modern critical approach to text and
preservation espoused by JW and others consistent with the perspective in
chapter one of the WCF or the 2LBCF 1689?

The modern view suggests the Word of God is preserved in the
mass of corrupted copies and that only in the modern age have scholars been
able to approximate the elusive original autographa.

The confessional view suggests that the divine originals of
the immediately inspired Word of God have been preserved in the apographa (copies) which accurately
reflects the autographa. It stresses preservation not restoration.

Here are excerpts from the quotes I shared on this point:

Richard A. Muller on the orthodox Protestant view of text and
preservation: “The case for the
Scripture as an infallible rule of faith and practice and the separate
arguments for a received text free from the major (i.e., non-scribal) errors rests
on an examination of the apographa
and does not seek infinite regress of the lost autographa as a prop for textual infallibility” (Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics,
Volume 2, p. 433).

John Owen on text and preservation: “… We add, that the whole Scripture, entire as given out by God, without any loss,
is preserved in the copies of the
originals yet remaining…. Indeed, in
them all, we say, is every letter and tittle of the word. These copies, we say, are the rule, standard,
and touchstone of all translations, ancient or modern, by which they are in all
things to be examined, tried, corrected, amended; and themselves only by
themselves” (Collected Works, Vol.
16, p. 357).

Friday, April 01, 2016

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday morning's sermon on Hebrews 8:7-13.Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I
regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them
in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

In v.
9 the inspired author declares that the new covenant in Christ will not be like
the old covenant (see v. 9a). I love the
striking image here, drawn from the account of the great exodus from bondage in
Egypt. God had been like a father to
Israel, leading the nation as a father does a small child “by the hand.”

Every
parent here has had the experience of leading or attempting to lead a child by
the hand. Maybe you are taking a child
across a busy road or over a narrow bridge and you firmly grasp the child’s
hand lest he come into danger and be harmed, struck by a car, or fall from the
bridge. Does the child typically turn to
the father and say, “Oh, thank you for taking my hand and guiding me
safely. Thank you for your paternal care
and love and provision for me.”? No.
What does the child often do? He
tries to twist and pull his hand out of your hand, so that he can walk on his
own. He wants freedom. He wants
liberty. He wants autonomy. He does not want your oppressive hand holding
him back from his full self-expression.
And Israel of old had been like that willful and disobedient child (see
v. 9b). This is also where the analogy
breaks down, because a human parent can also sometimes be wrongly willful and
overbearing. But here the fault is all, totally, on one side.

Notice
also the emphasis here on God’s response to willful Israel: “and I regarded them not.” The verb here is ameleo: to disregard, to
neglect, to reject. The NIV renders it
as “I turned away from them.”

Matthew
Poole explains the verb’s meaning: “I
took no care of them. I did neither
esteem or regard them, but cast them off from being my people for their lewd,
treacherous covenant breaking with me; they would not return unto me, and I rejected
them from being my people, or a people as they were before.”

Well
has it been said that the worst thing that can happen is not necessarily for
God actively to chasten a person, but sometimes the greater judgment is when he
allows a person to go his own way, when he gives him over to his own sinful and
rebellious inclinations.

Later,
in v. 10a, we read: “And I will be to
them a God and they shall be to me a people.”
This speaks to the fulfillment of a quest we might trace back to the
very beginning of God’s covenant relationship to Israel. Of course, God would still be God even if no
human being ever acknowledged his Godhood but what is envisioned here is the
ideal of a people who acknowledge God to be who God is. A people who acknowledge themselves to be his
own, as expressed in Psalm 95:7: “For he
is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep
of his hand.”

It
envisions a people who are not twisting their hand and trying to break away
from the Father’s protective guidance, but who turn to him in ready and humble
submission. They do not shake their puny fists and him and say, “You can’t tell
me what to do” but they turn in humble submission and say, “Lord, please tell
us what to do and how to be.”